Albania in 2004

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Albanian domestic politics in 2004 remained focused on the decade-old power struggle between Socialist Prime Minister Fatos Nano and his rival, former president Sali Berisha (of the Albanian Democratic Party [PD]). On February 7, police had to prevent several thousand PD protesters from entering government buildings in Tirana. Berisha called on Nano to leave office voluntarily to avoid being driven out, as Pres. Eduard Shevardnadze had been in Georgia. Two weeks later about 50,000 protesters took to the streets of the capital in what amounted to the biggest demonstration since the countrywide unrest in 1997. Nano faced tough challenges not only from the opposition but also within his own party. Ilir Meta, who had been prime minister in 2000–02, announced in September that he and 10 other parliamentary deputies had left the Socialist Party to found the Socialist Movement for Integration, which would compete with the Socialists in the 2005 general elections.

A foreign-policy blow was dealt when NATO’s Istanbul summit in June ended without any firm membership date’s being promised to Albania. Within the framework of the U.S.-Adriatic Charter, however, Albania was actively developing its defense cooperation with the U.S., Macedonia, and Croatia. The slow pace of domestic reforms rang alarm bells within the EU, and the government of The Netherlands, which held the rotating EU presidency, warned Albania in a statement on September 14 that more would have to be done to fight crime, corruption, and trafficking in drugs and humans and that Tirana would have to reform its electoral process if it intended to pursue an EU Stabilization and Association agreement.

In January an inflatable rubber boat carrying 32 illegal emigrants from Vlora, Alb., to the Italian coast capsized, and 21 people drowned. Police raided suspected human traffickers in Tirana and detained 24 suspected would-be immigrants. Italian and Albanian law-enforcement officers cooperated again in August when villagers from the traditionally rebellious town of Lazarat fired gunshots at an Italian police helicopter that was searching for cannabis fields.

Albanian-Macedonian relations improved as Macedonia pursued reforms to strengthen rights of its minorities, notably ethnic Albanians. The two foreign ministers agreed in Skopje on May 6 to open more border checkpoints and accelerate the construction of a highway and pipeline between the two countries. Prime Minister Nano and Pres. Alfred Moisiu visited Kosovo, the heavily ethnic Albanian province of the former Yugoslavia, on March 2 and April 22, respectively. Moisiu warned that delays in defining Kosovo’s political status would strengthen extremists in the region, while Nano declined to support Kosovo’s call for independence. In June Albania arrested two Kosovar extremists, and in July a Tirana court convicted another man of inciting ethnic hatred in Kosovo and gave him an 18-month sentence.